Without limiting the scope of the invention, its background is described in connection with volatile organic compounds.
The related art shows that certain compounds are known to cause subtle changes in human behavior. For example, Miller and Maner, in an article entitled “Scent of a Woman: Men's Testosterone Responses to Olfactory Ovulation Cues” Psychological Science 21(2) 276-283, teach that using t-shirts under certain conditions (ovulation, nonovulation and control) that “ovulatory cues are detectable via chemosensory signaling and, moreover, that these cues are linked with functionally relevant endocrinological responses in men.”
Preti, et al., in an article entitled “Male Axillary Extracts Contain Pheromones that Affect Pulsatile Secretion of Luteinizing Hormone and Mood in Women Recipients”, Biology of Reproduction, Vol. 68, No. 6, 2107-2113 (Jun. 1, 2003), teach that human underarm secretions alter the length and timing of the menstrual cycle when applied to women recipients.
Geltsein, et al., in an article entitled “Human Tears Contain a Chemosignal,” Science, Vol. 331, 226-230 (Jan. 14, 2011), show that tears contain a chemosignal as shown by looking a brain scans using functional magnetic resonance imaging of stimulated males and sniffing at tears or saline, which found that males sniffing the tears of females decreased sexual arousal. However, these authors expressly leave open the questions of “What is the identity of the active compound/s in tears? Do chemosignals in women s tears signal anything else but sexual disinterest, and is this signaling restricted to emotional tears alone? Moreover, could the emotional or hormonal state (menstrual phase/oral contraceptives) of the crier/experimenter influence the outcome? In turn, what if any are the signals in men's tears . . . or children's tears, and what are the effects of all these within, rather than across, gender?” Id. at 230.
Kwak, et al., in an article entitled “In search of the chemical basis for MHC odourtypes”, Proc. R. Soc. B 2010 277, 2417-2425 (Mar. 31, 2010), teach that “Mice can discriminate between chemosignals of individuals based solely on genetic differences confined to the major histocompatibility complex (MHC).” Abstract. However, these authors conclude that “Regardless of what approach is used to focus on MHC-related odourants, their structural identification would still require isolation from the urine matrix, which, as described above, is subject to various errors.” Id. at 2425.
Albrecht, et al., in an article entitled “Smelling Chemosensory Signals of Males in Anxious Versus Nonanxious Condition Increases State Anxiety of Female Subjects”, Chem. Senses 36: 19-27, 2011, find that “humans in an anxious state compared with a nonanxious state are able to increase anxiety levels in other humans via their body odors” when studying sweat donation. Abstract. However, these authors state that it is not clear which secretions may have been responsible for the effects found, and that further research is required to obtain a deeper insight into brain function. Id. at 25-26.
Yet another study looking at underarm odors, by Chen and Haviland-Jones, entitled “Rapid Mood Change and Human Odors”, Physiology & Behavior 68 (1999) 241-250, collected underarm odors from women and men at different stages (prepubertal, college, and older) to determine changes in depressive mood. It was found that odors could modulate the moods of other humans, with a greater reduction in depressive mood observed when smelling the odor from older women and adults. Id. at 248.
Vaglio in an article entitled, “Chemical communication and mother-infant recognition”, Communicative & Integrative Biology 2:3, 279-281; May/June 2009, reviewing the literature relating to pheromones states that “Fifty years after the term pheromone was coined by Peter Karlson and Martin Lusher the search for these semiochemicals is still an elusive goal of chemical ecology and communication studies.” Id. at 279.
Stern and McClintock, in an article entitled, “Regulation of ovulation by human pheromones”, Nature, Vol. 392, 177-179, 12 Mar. 1998, state that their findings suggest that “These data demonstrate that humans have the potential to communicate pheromonally”. Id. at 178.
Shirasu and Touhara, in an article entitled “The scent of disease: volatile organic compounds of the human body related to disease and disorder” J. Biochem. 2011; 150(3):257-266, Jul. 19, 2011, review the literature as relates to disease conditions and volatiles obtained from breath, sweat, skin and body odor, and both disease conditions and infectious disease. Likewise, Peled, et al., in an article entitled “Volatile fingerprints of cancer specific genetic mutations”, Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology, and Medicine 9 (2013) 758-766, look at patterns in volatile organic compounds emitted from cell membranes of lung cancer cells. Kwak, et al., in an article entitled “Volatile biomarkers from human melanoma cells”, Journal of Chromatography B, 931 (2013) 90-96, look at volatile biomarkers from human melanoma cells. Hanai, et al., “Analysis of volatile organic compounds released from human lung cancer cells and from the urine of tumor-bearing mice”, Cancer Cell International 2012, 12:7, look at volatile organic compounds in mouse urine. Finally, Dummer, et al., “Analysis of biogenic volatile organic compounds in human health and disease”, Trends in Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 30, No. 7, Nov. 7, 2011, summarize the literature with regard to biogenic volatile organic compounds and biomarkers for underlying disease conditions.